


gotham (k)nights

by nevereverever



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: ASL, Broken Bones, Canon Disabled Character, Cass is Disabled, Concussions, Cutesy, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mission Fic, Not Canon Compliant, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Tim Drake-centric, cursing, fight me, looking out for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 14:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21101222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevereverever/pseuds/nevereverever
Summary: There was something about it, the four of them, no interruptions. It was dark in the cell, but it felt like a sleepy breakfast table. Like somehow, in uniform, kidnapped, and injured, they could be together and be a family.orBeing captured and left to rot in a cell has never been this fun





	gotham (k)nights

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! First, super extra shoutout to doc-squash on tumblr for creating the [incredible comic](https://doc-squash.tumblr.com/post/187963971048/they-bond-when-they-can) that this is based on. Go follow them, they make incredible content. Second, love y'all, have fun reading!

They often joked that comms were broken when they didn't want to hear whatever was coming through. It was always a 'haha, you're breaking up,' before jumping into something dangerous. 99 times out of 100, they knew that they could call for backup and someone would be there.

That night, however, it was not so. It was a Riddler night, a virus holding Oracle's computer hostage kind of night. It was a puzzles with consequences kind of night. The consequences appeared to be classified information leaking if they didn’t make it to their goals in time.

And with no comms, they couldn't find each other in Gotham's dense concrete jungle. They were alone, and they were running out of time.

Worse than that, Bruce and Steph were benched due to injury, and Cass was still on the plane home from Hong Kong. It was going to be a nice little family reunion if everyone made it through the night alive.

So it was BatBoys against the world that night.

Tim made it through his clues first. Great detective and all that. To be fair, he'd skipped a bunch when he figured out the end about halfway through the chase.

What he did not figure out was that it was a trap that he'd walked straight into. He was basically immediately thrown into a pit by a goon. By basically immediately, he meant that there was a trail of quite a few unconscious bodies before one of them managed to cuff him. Not at his best, he thought, as he got himself out of the cuffs in a jiff as soon as the man left him alone. He definitely should have realized the clues were too easy, that the acrostic puzzle with the coordinates was too simple a game.

He looked around the pit for a minute. Smooth walls, no handholds, but not close enough together that he could friction climb, and they’d taken his grapple. The room was completely empty save for him, the walls a green tinged off-white.

He brought a hand to his ear before he remembered that comm was broken, and he was alone. An icy feeling dripped down his spine as he thought about the others, sprinting towards the trap at full speed.

“Hope somebody gets here soon,” he murmured to himself as Jason fell from the ceiling and hit the ground with a hard thwack. Tim couldn’t tell if he wanted to laugh or punch something. Both?

“They got you too, huh?” He asked as Jason groaned and rolled over.

“Yup, and I think they broke some of my ribs,” Jason panted, clutching his side. He tapped at his earpiece, and then remembered, “Comms are down, so we can’t warn Wing or Robin. Shit.” He found a comfortable place on his back and stopped squirming. 

“Luckily, it seems like they’re just out to embarrass us tonight, or do something while we’re stuck. No signs of mortal peril yet,” Tim sighed and scooched closer to Jason, who was still cuffed. “Let’s hope nothing too bad.”

“I’ve got a feeling he’s trying to-”

“Piss off Batman,” they said in conjunction. Tim thought back and realized they had gone back on an agreement with him a bit ago. He’d forgotten about it, but it made sense Riddler might capture some Bats to prove he was still smarter than them.

Which he evidently was.

“Sure you’re okay? I can get you out of the cuffs. I don’t know why they thought- have they not met us?” Tim’s brain was scrambled, and his head hurt, and he had a sinking suspicion that he was at least a little bit concussed. Jason grunted in response, and pulled the open cuffs from behind his back.

“Fuck off. You need some sleep, Red.” Jason let his head loll to the side to look his little brother directly in the eyes. His mask was still on, but Tim could feel his brother’s stare, as affectionate as he ever was underneath all of that anger.

“I need to figure out how to get us outta here first,” he said, nudging Jason’s foot with his. He yawned, suddenly exhausted. He didn’t have the bandwidth to finish a thought, let alone an escape plan. “You see that Knights game yesterday?” He asked, mind wandering.

“Only saw the scores. I was out, ya know, doing my job. We fuckin demolished, right?” Another body was pushed through the hole in the ceiling, but this one managed to land on its feet. Someone called ‘Freak’ down into their cell.

“You bet your ass we did,” Dick replied, voice smooth for someone who was recently kicked into a hole in the ground.

“You okay, Babybird?” He looked at Tim for a second, and Tim noticed that blood was dripping from behind his domino. Tim nodded in response.

“Hood?” Jason flipped him off, which Dick rightly took as a ‘not dead yet.’ He settled in the space between them. Tim gritted his teeth as the pain in his head got worse, but a wave of nausea washed over him all at once. He couldn’t suppress his whimper. 

With a sigh, Dick got himself out of his cuffs and guided them so that his little brother’s head was resting in his lap. Even though it was a little embarrassing, Tim could admit that it made him feel better.

“I mean we came this close to a no-hitter, just this close.” Dick ran a hand through his little brother’s hair. Tim’s eyes drifted shut, content for a moment, which earned him a laugh and then a volley of coughs from Jason. The cell was quiet for a minute, and Tim could feel his brain getting foggier by the second. When another person fell from the hole in the ceiling, he barely flinched. The person rolled out of the fall rather gracefully.

“You hurt, lil Bat?” Jason asked between coughs.

“The only thing wounded was my pride. I managed to defeat the Riddler, though, thank you for asking,” Damian replied, dusting off his costume. 

“If you defeated him then why the Fuck are you down here with us? Couldn't have brought a rope?” Jason shot back, but with an arm reached out towards his youngest brother. Damian was wary for a second but seemed to notice Jason’s injury. The kid was never good with other people in pain. He sat down next to him and gently put his head on Jason’s shoulder, almost like he was listening for a heartbeat. He mumbled something unintelligible.

“Say that again, kiddo?” Dick asked, smiling. He went back to running his fingers through Tim’s curls.

“I tripped,” Damian whispered, cheeks turning bright red. His brothers started to laugh, except for Jason who tried not to because broken ribs make most jokes not funny. 

“I also defeated the villain, and destroyed his computers. So all of his nefarious plans that you idiots failed to hinder are fully stopped in their tracks-”

“But then you tripped and fell into the brother hole,” Tim slurred, still having a giggle fit. How had Damian Wayne, world’s greatest assassin and current trained vigilante, fallen into this dumb of a trap? 

“If you ever mention it again, I will kill you and make it look like an accident. Do not test me on this matter,” the youngest growled before retreating into the warmth of Jason’s shoulder.

“We should probably get out of here. If Robin destroyed the computers that means O should have comms back up any minute. And we don’t want her to find us all just sitting in this hole in the ground,” Dick said. He made motions to stand but found he couldn’t with Tim’s head in his lap. Despite the fact that they were all technically captured, he looked so peaceful. None of them moved.

There was something about it, the four of them, no interruptions. It was dark in the cell, but it must have been early morning by then, and it felt like a sleepy breakfast table. Like somehow, in uniform, kidnapped, and injured, they could be together and be a family.

Some time later, their comm panels came back to life and Oracle was a voice in their ears. 

“Why do you all have the same GPS coordinates? Did you get Riddler? Do I need to send someone for pickup? No, don’t answer that. I’m sending someone to get you, they’re en route.” Babs sounded upset, but also tired and worried and it made them think twice about how long they’d spent in the cell.

“Mmm, bet it’s Cassie. I missed her,” Tim hummed.

“Names, bud,” Dick corrected, tugging at his younger brother’s hair playfully. Bruce would have been more upset, but Bruce wasn't there.

"She'll bring a rope," Jason said, holding Damian a little tighter to his side. It earned him a poke in the stomach but he really didn't mind. Time moved slowly, like honey, in that quiet and dim room. 

"We did well in the game last night," Damian mumbled.

When the door above them opened, the very early morning sunlight streamed through. It was the dusky grey that the sun shone in Gotham, but it was light and it was good. A shadowed figure peered down.

"Boys. Breakfast time," Cass called as she tossed down a rope, a laugh bubbling through the air.

Damian was the first out, then Dick with Tim on his back, then Jason (who they gave some help despite his insistence that "I've been through worse. I have literally died!").

Cass looked them all up and down, then zeroed in on Tim.

"Missed you," she said, voice soft. Not her ‘Black Bat’ voice, her ‘Cassandra Wayne who has been so far away and missed her idiots of brothers so much because they were the first people who ever really mattered’ voice.

Tim smiled so big and hugged his sister so hard that he forgot about his head and how they were kidnapped or whatever and how he was so hungry he would eat Bat-Cow and face Damian’s wrath. All he needed was his family and they were there.

She pulled away and scrunched her nose under her mask 

"**You headache have? Patrol bad? Coffee need?**" She signed, rapidfire.

"**C-O-N-C-U-S-S-I-O-N**" He fingerspelled, unsure of the sign, she nodded and slung an arm around him. She pressed an I love you into his chest and he let his head come to rest on her shoulder. They stumbled out of the warehouse together, safe. Cass turned to Dick.

“**Babs is pissed,**” Cass signed slowly. Tim realized how tired she was, having come from China just to get sent on a pickup mission. Must have been hard for her to talk.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “I’ll explain. She knows- she knows that I don’t get enough time with- I have to take the moments I get.” Cass nodded. Tim poked Cass in the side.

"Did you see the Gotham Knights game?" He asked, head pounding with every step.

"Of course I did," she replied, tripping over her words, "Priorities."

"That's what I'm saying, Jay, you gotta have priorities about these things," Tim slurred. 

"I hate you. Also, I don't want to sound like the old man or anything, but seriously. Names," Jason hissed as they finally made it to the Batmobile

"Sorry, can't hear you, the comms are broken." Tim collapsed into the car to the laughs of his siblings.

In the car, autopilot driving them home, Dami fell asleep in Jason’s lap, Tim received excellent scritches from Cass, and Dick started to patch up his wounds and write the report for Barbara. He put on the radio and it was a quiet song he didn’t know. It was a perfect Wayne family morning.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked that (or hated it), send me a comment. They make me so happy!


End file.
